Hanoi – On September 4, the Hanoi People’s Court opened the trial of Bui Trung Duc (33, Ho Chi Minh City) and 19 accomplices, charged with large-scale investment fraud through fake forex platforms.
Prosecutors said Duc was part of a network led by “Mr Pips” Pho Duc Nam and “Mr Hunter” Le Khac Ngo. The group allegedly set up 27 shell companies and cloned international-sounding trading sites like ZenoMarkets, Londonex, CHMarkets, TradeTime, LPLtrade, and DexInvesting. In reality, all trades were rigged against investors, with deposits funneled straight into company-controlled accounts.
More than 1,000 phone numbers and hundreds of staff were used to cold-call victims, promising quick profits. Sales agents, mostly in their 20s, were trained to build trust by first letting clients make small withdrawals before pushing them to invest larger sums. Once hooked, customers were manipulated into escalating trades until their accounts were wiped out.
Police have so far proven 12 cases worth 11 billion VND ($430,000), including one 66-year-old Hanoi woman who lost 6.7 billion VND. Authorities have seized cash, luxury cars, gold, real estate, and designer goods, with total assets recovered in the wider “Mr Pips” case exceeding 5.3 trillion VND ($208 million).
Nam (“Mr Pips”) was arrested in late 2024, accused of defrauding over 2,600 investors. Ngo (“Mr Hunter”) remains on the run, while his wife was arrested in Thailand in July under an Interpol warrant.
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Source: Vietnam Insider